


Demon Uprising

by ElenaCee



Series: Devil's Trap [9]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel Wings, Canon-Typical Violence, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Hurt Lucifer, Hurt/Comfort, Whump, Wing Grooming, Wingfic, devil reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-20
Updated: 2017-04-20
Packaged: 2018-10-21 08:59:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10682034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElenaCee/pseuds/ElenaCee
Summary: When Lucifer is ambushed by a demon, Dan gets an eyeful, and Chloe must practice her Devil-wrangling skills.





	Demon Uprising

There was a commotion at the front desk.

Chloe looked up from her paperwork. They had no active case, so she didn’t expect her partner to make an appearance today. Still, that had sounded like Lucifer’s voice.

“It’s alright, Sergeant,” she now heard him say clearly over the background noise of the bullpen, “she’s with me.”

Any ‘she’ that was with Lucifer automatically merited closer investigation. Chloe rolled her chair a bit towards the center aisle and craned her neck.

There was the Devil, dressed impeccably and towering over everyone else as always, gleeful grin firmly in place, talking to the Desk Sergeant and saying something containing the phrases “trust me” and “it’s for everyone’s good”.

From experience, this “it” might turn out to be anything from mildly embarrassing to full-on catastrophic. Clearly, Chloe would need to be a little more hands-on, right now, before Lucifer happened to the precinct.

She rose and walked up to the front desk. “What’s going on?” she asked her partner in her this-better-be-good voice.

Said partner’s face lit up at the sight of her, which everyone who happened to look at him could see. His whole body also lit up at her presence, which nobody could see, since it was unnoticeable in the fluorescent lights, so only she knew. “Detective!” he said, using her title for old time’s sake, and because he knew how much she loved hearing it from him. “Just in time to rescue me from the vagaries of red tape. Apparently, someone adorned with a badge needs to sign off on this.” He pointed behind him.

A short, stocky woman in a delivery service uniform stood there, half-hidden behind the cardboard package she was carrying.

“This is Amy,” Lucifer went on, pointing first at the woman, then at the package, “and this is the precinct’s new coffeemaker. Provided Cerberus here will allow it inside these hallowed halls.” He transferred his smile from Chloe to the Desk Sergeant and turned it up a notch. “So stubborn.”

“‘New coffeemaker’?” Chloe repeated the most salient bit. “Why are you delivering a new coffeemaker? The one we have is perfectly fine.”

“Only if your tastebuds have suffered some permanent loss of function. This,” he tapped the package, “is the apex of coffee cooking,  _ la haute cuisine du café _ , and if I’m to be roped into doing bloody paperwork, I require the very best coffee to sustain me during my ordeal.” He clapped his hands together and looked at Chloe. “Your choice, my love. Either you let me install this thing, or…” he trailed off. “Well, or I’m taking it with me to Lux, I suppose. But it would be your loss.”

By then, his monologue had drawn a small crowd of interested cops, and even the Lieutenant was looking to see what all the fuss was about.

Dan, too, had trickled by. “That’s a damn good brand,” he commented, nodding at the maker’s logo.

“Of course it is,” Lucifer purred. “There’s really no reason to deny yourselves the best coffee you can have, possibly excepting the hand-ground, hand-brewed variety. Just one signature, and it’s all yours, no strings attached. I’m donating it to the precinct for the benefit of humanity. Well, and for mine.”

Chloe decided that she couldn’t see the harm after all, so she stepped up to the front desk, looking for a pen.

“Thank you!” Lucifer said behind her, ushering the delivery woman along. “This way, darling. Sure you don’t want me to take this? No?”

The next moment, pandemonium broke loose.

The lights flickered. A gap of blue-white light appeared in mid-air, accompanied by a crashing noise; it widened, then something huge and dark flew through it, launching itself at Lucifer, who, taken completely by surprise, went down under the onslaught; Chloe had a confused impression of black, bat-like wings and glinting metal enveloping him. An inhuman shriek canceled out all other noises.

Before anyone could do so much as draw a breath to shout, the light gap closed; dark shape was gone.

And so was Lucifer.

There was a dark stain on the floor where he had fallen. While all around her, cops and lab techs and the confused delivery woman ducked behind desks and counters and otherwise belatedly took cover, Chloe stepped forward and dipped her finger in the stain. It came away red, just like she had feared.

When she looked up, Dan was next to her. “What the hell was that?” He looked around, at the delivery woman who still held her package, and at the spot where Lucifer had been. “Where’d he go?”

“I don’t know,”  Chloe said, extricating her phone. That thing had looked decidedly demonic, which meant that she needed to call in expert advice. “I need to make a call.”

 

* * *

 

“He’s the Devil,” Maze said over the phone, “so he’s about as powerful as they come. No single demon could take him in a fair fight. But I suppose it’s still possible that he could be taken off-guard. And fighting fair isn’t exactly what demons do, especially against a more powerful enemy.” She grinned audibly. “I should know.”

“So, where is he?” Chloe asked.

She had laid claim to one of the small conference rooms for privacy. Dan had insisted on tagging along. After a moment’s hesitation, Chloe had suppressed her first impulse to keep him away; he would have to be brought up to speed sooner or later anyway. Besides, she was thoroughly out of her depth and could use the extra brain (even if that extra brain didn’t have all the information) and at the very least the moral support.

“I don’t know,” Maze said, sounding worried. “He’s not on the earthly plane. Probably the infernal one. I can’t feel him if he’s there while I’m here. But I can’t follow him there either. I’d need a hellmouth or wings for that.”

Dan, who had put his head next to the phone, was trying to listen in. His expression was priceless.

“A hellmouth,” Chloe repeated, feeling only slightly ahead of her ex.

“Yeah. And before you ask,” Maze went on, “there’s none active at the moment anywhere on earth, and that’s a  _ good _ thing.”

Right. The thing she didn’t really understand didn’t give her any options and was promptly ignored. “So, how do we find him?”

Maze sighed. “We can’t. Amenadiel has lost his wings, so he can’t help, either. Only thing we can do is wait for Lucifer to turn up on his own.”

Chloe bit her lip, remembering glinting metal and Lucifer’s blood on the floor. Wherever he was now, he was injured and possibly outnumbered, with no backup. Her imagination was beginning to run wild, despite her best efforts to focus on the here and now. “Great.”

Clearly, Maze heard something in her voice, because she said, “Chloe, he’s the Lord of Hell. Also, he’s got his wings back. He was pretty badass even before that. It would take a  _ lot _ of demons to give him trouble now.”

She would have been more convinced if she had the impression that Maze believed her own pep talk. “Maze, he was with me when it happened. He was vulnerable.” She closed her eyes briefly. “Whoever it was drew blood with the first attack.”

“Probably demon blades. They will hurt Celestials even though they’re immortal.”

“Okay.” Important bit of information, that.

“But the demon will have noticed his vulnerability,” Maze went on. “They will still be around you on the Infernal plane, Decker, only you can’t see them.” Her voice changed, becoming more urgent. “You’ve got to move. Now. Move and keep moving. That’ll at least make him immortal again.”

“Right.” Chloe turned towards the door, coming face to face with Dan, who had been standing next to her. “I’ll be back,” she said to him --

And froze.

The same blueish light as before had appeared in the middle of the room, increasing in intensity and widening into a familiar rip-like gap, and through it, a confusion of something white and black and red fell, accompanied by shrieking and hissing sounds that were very much not of this world. It crashed into the conference table, smashing chairs into it and into the wall next to it. The gap closed, and silence reigned.

It was only then that Chloe recognized Lucifer, bleeding from a wound in his neck, wings out, suit torn in several places, shirt shredded and bloodied. One of his wings, too, was red with blood, the feathers in disarray and sticky with it, and… Her brain belatedly informed her that his left wing was broken, the jagged bone visible; a compound fracture.

Next to her, Dan stared, muttering something containing the words “God” and “fuck”.

Ignoring him, she fell to her knees next to Lucifer who was clumsily trying to get to his feet. His eyes were wild; he was gasping, holding his right lower back awkwardly with one hand, and when he tried to move his broken wing, he gave a sharp cry of pain, his eyes briefly flickering red fire.

It didn’t take even Chloe’s limited combat experience to realize that this was a very battered Devil, in enough pain to really make him mad, which was potentially a very bad thing. “Lucifer,” she said soothingly, “stay down, don’t move. You’re hurt.” She threw a brief look at her ex, dreading his reaction to all this, and hoping that clear instructions would help keep the inevitable freak-out at bay. “Dan, lock the door. Don’t let anyone in here.”

It didn’t work. Instead of doing as she said, Dan stood rooted to the floor, staring at the quivering wings that took up almost the entire room. “Chloe, what the hell…”

“Lock. The. Door,” Chloe repeated, sharply. She didn’t have time to deal with him right now. Not while her Devil was in pain and so close to losing control. “Lucifer,” she said, putting her arms around him to ground him, reassure him. “Tell me what I can do to help.”

He grasped at her and held onto her, blowing hot air against her neck in fast, gulping breaths. His wings lay across the table and chair, clearly uncomfortable, the left one twitching. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but all that came out was a strangled moan.

It hit her like a stab to the heart, the soft cry of pain, seeing him so out of it, so hurt. From up close, she could see that the dark fabric of his suit was soaked through with blood. Clearly, he had sustained more wounds that were hidden under his clothes. “Lucifer, shift,” she said urgently, pulling him closer. “Shift. Heal yourself.”

Adjusting her position, she raised her arms about his head and neck to shield him from Dan’s view and only half caring what her ex did or didn’t see at this point. He’d already been exposed to the sight of the wings, so.

It was futile anyway, because he came around the table to see what was going on, lurching like a zombie. “Chloe, what the hell?” he said again, weakly, white as a sheet.

The gasping body in her arms turned even warmer than it already was, which told her without needing to look that Lucifer had assumed his true form. The wound in his neck closed before her eyes when she did check. But when Lucifer moved his wings to fold them around his body, to shield himself, the left one bent where it wasn’t supposed to, the ragged bone jutting further out through feathers tinted bright red. He screamed in such pain that Chloe could feel his entire body tense and shake with it, could see his eyes briefly light up with it.

“Woah!” Dan yelled, instinctively stepping forward. “Chloe! For God’s sake, get away from that….”

She could feel the way the sound of Dan’s voice eroded Lucifer’s precarious control further. His eyes flashed again with hellfire, and this time they kept glowing.

“Dan!” she hissed, putting her arms more snugly around Lucifer, whether to hold him down or to calm him she didn’t know, “shut up and stay the hell back!”

“Chloe!” Despite her warning, Dan took another step further towards them, one trembling hand raised towards her.

Tense and crazed with pain, Lucifer made a sound that could not be called human anymore. His scorched-looking head came up from Chloe’s shoulder, fiery eyes fixed on Dan, growling.

“Stay back, Dan! For God’s sake, stay back!” she urged him again, but the Devil was already getting to his feet, moving out of her arms and towards Dan with inexorable strength, the whole wing extending towards him menacingly while the broken one dragged on the floor and across one chair, making him hiss in pain.

Dan jumped back from the approaching wing tip, drawing his gun, eyes wide. “You get away from her, or I swear I -”

“No!” Chloe yelled, scrambling upright to put herself between them, holding one arm out towards each of them. “Don’t shoot! Lucifer, he’s not going to hurt you. Or me! He’s not going to hurt anyone! Nobody’s gonna hurt anyone!”

Lucifer’s eyes fixed on her, the glow in them fading slightly, the grimace on his burned-looking face easing. Listening to her even now.

Dan, on her other side, swallowed audibly. “Chloe… What the fucking  _ hell _ !”

The Devil’s eyes flicked back to Dan, flashing back to full glow.

“Dan,” she said slowly and clearly, keeping her eyes on Lucifer, “I know it’s a lot to take in, but you’ve got to listen to me, okay? If you make a wrong move now, you’re going to get hurt, and he’s going to get hurt. Just.... don’t freak out, please. Breathe, and I promise everything will be okay. Alright?”

She knew without looking that Dan, stubborn, brave Dan, still had his gun trained on the Devil, because she could hear Lucifer growl low and deep in his throat.

“Don’t move, Dan,” she said again, more softly, not taking her eyes off Lucifer. “Just lower the gun. Don’t make a sound. He won’t attack you if you just stay still.” She raised her hand towards the uninjured wing, carefully making contact and gently petting the soft feathers. “Calm down, Lucifer. It’s okay. It’s just Dan. He won’t harm either of us. He’s not what’s hurting you.”

The fiery eyes flicked back to her, dimming when they made contact.

Slowly, she stroked the trembling wing, taking another step towards him. “Don’t move your wings, Lucifer. Your left wing is broken. That’s what’s hurting you. It’s not Dan.”

He panted, staring at her. Even on his scorched Devil’s face, she could make out the grimace of pain. Then his eyes flicked to where her hand was gently petting his uninjured wing

She smiled tentatively. “You can shift back now, Lucifer, okay?” she said softly. “Change back. Let’s not scare Dan any more than necessary, yeah?”

Behind her, she could hear Dan hyperventilate. _ Just stay still, Dan _ , she thought at him, sensing that Lucifer was far from calm, and that the tiniest little thing could yet set him off. Gently, she went on brushing her hand over the warm feathers, hoping the touch would soothe him.

Finally, dark brown eyes met hers, and she allowed herself to relax slightly. “Chloe,” Lucifer forced out hoarsely, the grimace of pain now plainly visible on his pale human face.

She held out her free arm, and he let her approach and gently hug him. “Don’t move your wings,” she urged him again, pressing her lips against his temple. “The left one is broken. It didn’t heal when you changed.”

He moaned raggedly as he tried to settle but couldn’t keep his wings from shaking, and finally, they disappeared from sight. Lucifer slumped to the floor, surrendering himself into Chloe’s arms, exhausted.

She followed him down to keep holding him, feeling herself grow a little fuzzy around the edges with delayed reaction but not yet trusting that it was really over. Wherever his wings were now, the broken one would still be hurting him, and she had just seen what intense pain could do to his self-control.

Behind her, she could hear Dan breathing heavily and shifting from foot to foot, and she finally dared to make eye contact with him.

He definitely looked like a freak-out was still on the table, but he had lowered his gun and hadn’t bolted from the room, so she supposed that was something.

Then everyone in the small room startled when someone knocked on the door, shouting, “Everything alright in there?”

At the same time, Chloe’s phone buzzer went off.

“Jeez,” Dan gasped, still breathing too fast.

“We’re fine,” Chloe shouted back, fixing Dan with a glare. “Everything’s fine.” Grabbing her phone with one hand and keeping her other arm around Lucifer, she saw that the caller was Maze.

Beyond tensing briefly, the Devil had not reacted to the disturbances, so she dared take the call, her arm still around him, holding him close.

“I can feel him again,” the demon began without preamble, “he’s somewhere close by. I’m out looking for him.”

“No need,” Chloe said, “he’s right here with me, in the precinct.”

“He came back to you! Of course he did. Is he okay?”

Lucifer snorted a weak laugh against her neck.

She ran her hand over his hair, weak with relief at his reaction. “Better now, but he’s got a broken wing.”

“Yeah, that happens. I can help with that.”

“No need, I’ve got one of his feathers.”

“Chloe.” Maze sounded amused. “His broken wing is full of his feathers. Can’t use one of his to heal him. You’d need a feather from another angel.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t worry, I can fix it. I’ve done it before.”

Chloe smiled. The feather had been her Plan A; asking Ella to set the broken bone and making her look at the wings in the process had been her very tentative Plan B. This was so much better, though. “Alright. Oh, and Dan is in serious need of a drink or ten.”

“Can help with that, too,” Maze said. “After I’ve patched up the Devil. Again.”

“Thank you, Maze,” she said sincerely. “You’re awesome.”

“I know. I’m doing it for him, mind you,” Maze groused. After a brief pause, she added, “Okay, for you, too.” The line went dead.

“Chloe,” Dan said plaintively, who had meanwhile let himself sink down to the floor with his back to the wall. “As I believe I said before, what. The. Hell.”

She gave him a pointed look. “Put the gun away, and we’ll talk.”

He looked at his hand and the gun in it as if he’d never seen one before. “Oh. Right.” He put it in its holster. Chloe could see his fingers shaking from across the room as he did so. “Well.” He visibly fought to get his breathing under control.

Lucifer groaned, raising his head off Chloe’s shoulders and making Dan wince violently. “Oh, I could  _ really _ use a drink right now,” he announced, completely ignoring the tension in the room and making everything about him again.

Chloe smiled at this return to normalcy. “That makes three of us,” she said. “But I’m only taking you if you manage to stay in this form.” After a glance at the state of him, she added, “And put on something that’s not soaked in blood.”

He looked down at himself. “Ugh. Agreed.”

After briefly checking on Dan, who was staring at them wildly but otherwise appeared reasonably calm, she framed Lucifer’s face in her hands. “How are you? What the hell happened?”

“Demon uprising,” Lucifer said succinctly. “Caught me off-guard.” He smiled brightly, which merely emphasized how pale and clammy he still looked. “Nipped it in the bud.”

She stroked her thumbs over his temples. “Glad the demon didn’t nip you in the bud.”

“So am I. He gave it his level best, but I am the Devil. Can’t have any of that.” He smiled again, more gently. “Glad to be back.”

She experienced one of those flashes of happiness that tended to assail her from time to time nowadays. Since her hands were already in positioned nicely, she used them to pull his face to hers and kiss him. “Glad to have you back.”

“Oh, God,” Dan groaned from where he was still leaning against the wall. “Chloe, you’re…- he’s… -”

“A miracle? The Devil?” Lucifer said against her lips. “Yep, and yep. Oh, and my Father’s not here.”

Chloe pulled on his ears, gently. “Go easy on him. He’s just seen your wings  _ and _ your true form.”

That actually seemed to restore a little more awareness in Lucifer. Blinking, he visibly pulled himself together. “Right. Sorry.” He straightened. Winced sharply. “Ahh. Ow. Dammit.”

“Your wing?”

He nodded. “Bloody thing. Decorative, but keeps getting in the way. Tell me again why I shouldn’t cut them both off.”

“Well, for one thing, Trixie would kill you.”

He nodded, considering. “There’s that.”

“For another,  _ I _ would kill you.”

He nodded again. “I believe you. Hard to do even for you, though, if I’ve already been slain by your spawn.”

She smiled, her heart nearly spilling over with affection. “Well, Maze is on her way here to fix your wing, so there will be no Devil slaying, I hope.”

“Ugh. May yet happen. My demon is many things. Gentle or careful, she’s not.”

“You’ll live.”

“Only if you, say, take your ex-Douche to the nearest bar before he goes catatonic or something, get some distance between us while Maze wields her knives on me.”

Oh yeah, good point. She peered at Lucifer. “Will you be okay?”

“I’ll be fine, Detective. My Consort. Go.”

She looked at Dan, remembering how she had felt when she had first seen the Devil. “Right.”

 

* * *

 

“He really is the Devil,” Dan said for the seventh time, staring into his empty glass.

“Hmhm.”

“Wow.” Also not the first time he’d said that. “And you’ve slept with him.” Stuck up on that one, too.

Chloe suppressed a sigh. She had promised herself to be patient. “Yeah.” She took a breath. “Look, Dan, I’m sorry you had to learn it in this way. I had planned to wait for a good time to tell you all this quietly, to prevent this exact kind of shit from happening.” She peered at him. He was looking a little wild-eyed, but rational. “Will you be alright?”

“Dunno,” he said, motioning to the bartender for a refill, then running his hand through his hair. “It’s a lot to take in.”

Wasn’t that the truth. “Sure is. Take your time.” She put her hand on his. “You can ask me stuff, you know.”

He sighed deeply, looking down on their joined hands. “Only one thing I need to know right now.”

“Shoot.”

He looked at her, biting his lip and frowning a little in the way he had when he was forced to talk about a topic he didn’t like. “Are you in love with him?”

She couldn’t keep the smile off her face at the mere thought of him. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

Dan sighed again. “Just making sure. It’s not like everyone couldn’t see it.”

“Yeah, well.” She wasn’t about to apologize for her happiness, or for the fact that she couldn’t hide it. “I tried not to be, for the longest time, when I still thought he was just a weirdo.”

“But he’s not. He’s really the Devil.” Dan shook his head in disbelief. “You’re in love with the Devil, Chloe.”

“Yeah.” She looked at him earnestly. “But he’s not evil, Dan. It’s not like people think. You gotta trust me on that.”

He looked back at her, his eyes full of concern, just the way they had been when they had still been together, still a couple. “How can you say that? He’s the Devil.  _ The _ Lucifer.”

“I can say that because I’m sure. He doesn’t lie. He doesn’t deceive. He’s unfailingly honest, unlike most humans I’ve met.”  _ Including you _ , she didn’t say.  _ Especially including you. _

He received the unspoken message, because he grimaced guiltily. “I’m sorry, Chloe.”

Yeah, like she hadn’t heard dozens of his apologies before. “It’s okay. Water under the bridge. I’m the Devil’s Consort now.”  _ And he will never lie to me. _

Dan looked at her, then knocked back his drink.

She took her empty glass, letting her hands play with it. “And I’m sure he’s not evil because God doesn’t think so,” she couldn’t resist adding.

“ _ What?! _ ”

That one might have been a bit too much for Dan, but she found she was still sore about Palmetto after all, despite her words, so she wasn’t sorry. “You saw his wings, Dan. They’re like a bit fat seal of approval. He’s only recently got them back, courtesy of his Dad. A.k.a. God.”

“Got them  _ back _ …?”

“Yeah, he’d had them cut off before. By way of giving God the middle finger. They were his most valuable possession. Gave him all sorts of powers. So he got rid of them.” She smiled. “Like you do, if you’re Lucifer Morningstar.”

Dan made a funny little sound. “I’m… I’m not sure I’m getting all this, Chloe.”

She put a hand on his shoulder. “I know you’re not. It’s fine. You’ll come around. If you need help, talk to Linda. Doctor Linda Martin. I’ll text you her number. She’s in the know.”

Just then, her phone buzzed with a text from Maze. Looking at the display, she saw,

_ at lux hes being pathetic can u come slap him or smth _

She tapped out,  _ what’s wrong? _

After a brief pause, she read,  _ apprntly im not allowed 2 groom his feathers anymore and hes got blood on em youd think hes dying _

She smiled as memories of Trixie with knots in her hair assailed her.  _ be right there _

She put a bill on the table and got up. “Gotta go now, take care of Lucifer.”

Dan made an actual effort. “How is he?”

“Well, apparently the Prince of Darkness is being a baby Devil about the blood in his feathers, so I’m requested by his demon to sort him out. You know. Some things never change, even if you’re a Celestial.”

He gave a weak chuckle. “You’re enjoying this.”

“Damn right I am.”

 

* * *

 

Maze met her in the parking deck below Lux, apparently on the way to her own car. “Over to you, Decker,” the demon said.

“How is he, apart from the blood situation?” Chloe wanted to know.

Maze scoffed. “He’s fine. I set the bone, it’s already good as new. Don’t let him fool you, he’s absolutely fine.”

“Thank you, Maze,” Chloe said, smiling.

“No prob. See you at dinner?”

“You bet. Both of us.”

“Don’t count on it. His Lordship ‘has bloody had it with it all’. I don’t think he’s leaving his nest anytime soon.”

“We’ll see. Oh, and Maze, Dan’s at the Paddock. Want to take over from me there?”

“Sure.” With that, Maze turned and walked away.

 

* * *

 

The elevator door pinged open, revealing what appeared to be an empty apartment.

“Lucifer?” Chloe called, stepping inside and looking around. Not in his bedroom, not on the couch, not out on the balcony.

“Bloody hell,” she finally heard him grouse from the direction of the whirlpool.

Walking over to it, she found him half submerged in the water, barechested (and knowing him, probably completely naked), the water white with feathers floating underneath the surface. His dripping left wing was half out of the water and bent over his shoulder so he could reach it, and he was brushing both hands at feathers pink with diluted blood. While she watched, he pulled both wings out of the water and flapped them vigorously, splashing himself and everything within splashing distance, then pulled the bloodied wing back up to inspect it.

He looked so much like a giant white bird taking a bath that it made Chloe giggle.

At the sound, he looked up. “So glad my predicament amuses you,” he grumbled. “Blood is a pain to get out, and I can’t reach that... “ he strained one arm over his back, contorting the wing further and wincing, “... spot back there.”

“Why don’t you use hydrogen peroxide?” she asked, taking off her shoes. “Gets blood out of most anything.” She unbuttoned her top, took off her pendant, and dropped her pants.

“Also gets feathers out of most anything,” he returned, still brushing ineffectively at his wing. “I really don’t know why I’m keeping the bloody things. All they do is break and sting and itch when you get blood on them.” Then he looked up, saw her get naked, and grinned. “Ooh. Not really a good time, but why the hell not?”

“Lucifer,” she said, and even she could hear the long-suffering tone in her voice. Panties and bra disposed of, she joined him in the water. “Wow, it’s hot.”

“It’s a hot tub, Detective,” he said, eyeing her, tongue licking his lower teeth. “Should feel right at home.”

She rolled her eyes. “Shut up and turn around.”

“With pleasure, but won’t you need something from my bedroom to take proper advantage of my position then?”

“Lucifer.”

Giving her one last grin by way of having the last word, he turned around, pulling in both wings as he did so, but she was still obliged to duck out of their way. From up close, they looked thoroughly bedraggled and miserable, feathers hanging heavy and wet, the bloodied ones he couldn’t reach spiky and still tinted reddish.

She put her hands against them, pulling her fingers down the length of one covert on his left wing shoulder, watching the blood drain out of it, dried blood coming loose.

With a sigh, he dropped all pretense of trying to seduce her, instead leaning his elbows on the edge of the pool and resting his head on his folded hands.

She got to work, running her hands through his feathers, carefully squeezing the blood out, scraping it off, washing it away, scooping warm water over his back and over the roots of the wings again and again, while he hummed his appreciation and gratefulness. When all the feathers were clean and white again, she continued to stroke the wet things, the skin between his wings, running her hands along the wing shoulders, soothing him, petting him. The almost purring sounds he made, combined with the feel of his feathers beneath her hands and the warmth of the water in the pool relaxed her, too, and after a while, she let herself drift against him to hug him from behind, the feathers of his wings brushing gently against her skin, thinking she might very well go to sleep right here, right now.

He pulled his wings out of the water just as she was about to drop off, raising them up in a dripping canopy and stretching them towards the ceiling. “Ugh. Bloody things weigh a ton.”

“Let’s get out of here,” she suggested, hoisting herself up onto the edge. “Should I go get you some towels?”

He twisted his head to look at her, giving her an appreciative smile. “You’ve never tried to dry feathers before, I take it,” he said, for once foregoing the otherwise inevitable innuendo. “I don’t own enough towels for that, and I’ve hosted pool parties.” He, too, climbed out of the pool, unashamed in his nakedness. “Only thing to do is let them dry after I’ve done this.”

He flapped his wings, once, twice, water droplets flying everywhere, paused, then flapped them some more, while Chloe enjoyed the sight of his muscles working in his back and chest.

“How’s Daniel, by the way?” he asked, folding his wings and making them disappear.

Hiding her disappointment, she looked around for a towel. “Pretty shaken, but I think he’ll be okay.”

He nodded, walking behind a partition and emerging again with two large black towels, holding one out to her. “He’s strong. Strong enough to fight the pull of the blade of the Angel of Death. Which is bloody strong.”

She stepped into the towel and let him dry her, smiling as she noticed the red L monogrammed into one corner. Apparently, he wasn’t above adhering to some clichés.

His arms closed about her as she was wrapped in the towel, holding her against him. “Thank you, Chloe. This feels so much better.”

“My pleasure, anytime.” Pulling his head down, she kissed him.

“Hmm,” he hummed into her mouth. “And since we’re both naked…”

Tempting her again, the little Devil. Or rather, not so little. “I’ve gotta get back to the precinct,” she said regretfully, already knowing what he would say.

“Boring,” he said, just as she had thought he would. “You’ve witnessed a demonic invasion and lent moral support to your ex-husband, all before lunchtime today. You deserve a little pleasure.”

She reached up to run her hands through his tousled hair. “It’ll have to wait until tonight. My paperwork needs to be finished today.” A thought came to her. “And I’ll have coffee from our new coffeemaker that you donated to the precinct. See? A little pleasure, right there.”

“Touché,” he said, easily conceding to her. “Tonight, then?”

“Yeah - very quietly. Both Maze and Trix are home tonight.”

He grinned. “I can be quiet.”

She very much doubted that in view of the things she was planning to do to him. She wasn’t the only one who had witnessed a demonic invasion today and deserved a little pleasure, and she was more than ready to oblige.

He would just have to bite into a pillow for a while.


End file.
